CFP Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable (4/30/2016)

One final call for the night:

Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable -- Edited Collection
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/61594
full name / name of organization:
Lisa Wenger Bro / Middle Georgia State University
contact email: lisa.bro@mga.edu

Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable: The Cultural Links between the Human and Inhuman

This proposed collection will explore the cultural implications of and the societal fears and desires associated with the literal monsters of fiction, television, and movies. Long tied to ideas of the Other, the inhuman have represented societal fears for centuries. While this depiction of inhuman as Other still persists today, postmodern times also saw a radical shift in the portrayals and long-held associations. The postmodern monster is by no means soft and cuddly; nevertheless, its depiction has evolved. Veering from the traditional, “us vs. them” dynamic, many contemporary works illustrate what posthuman theorists refer to as the “them” in “us” correlation. These new monsters, often found in urban fantasy, eradicate the stark separation between human and inhuman as audiences search for the similarities between themselves and their much beloved monster characters. The shifted portrayal also means that these select, postmodern monsters no longer highlight cultural fears, but rather cultural hopes, dreams, desires, and even humanity’s own inhumanity. This does not mean that the pure monsters of horror are eradicated in contemporary renderings. Instead, they too have evolved over the course of the 20th and 21st century, highlighting everything from socioeconomic anxieties to issues related to humanity and human nature.

Given the many and varied implications of the inhuman in media and their long and diverse history, this volume will examine the cultural connotations of the monstrous, focusing specifically on the monsters of modernism and postmodernism.

In particular, we are looking to fill in certain gaps, and welcome articles related to the following monsters:

• Ghosts
• Leviathons/behemoths—anything from Mothra to Dragons
• Science Fiction related monsters such as artificial intelligence and cyborgs

The proposal for this collection is in progress, and will be submitted once selections are made.

Please email the following to Lisa Wenger Bro (lisa.bro@mga.edu) by Thursday, April 30:

• a 300-350 word abstract
• a brief biography
• the estimated length of the full article
• the number of illustrations, if any, you will use (note, it will be up to individual authors to secure rights to images)

Full articles will be due by June 30. All accepted articles will be peer-reviewed.

By web submission at 03/31/2015 - 16:41

CFP Monsters and Monstrosity in 21st-Century Film and Television (5/1/2016)

Monsters and Monstrosity in 21st-Century Film and Television (1 May 2016)
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/65973

full name / name of organization:
Cristina Artenie and Ashley Szanter
contact email:
ashleyszanter1@weber.edu

Monsters and Monstrosity in 21st-Century Film and Television

Editors
Cristina Artenie (Universitas Press) and Ashley Szanter (Weber State University)

Starting from the premise that monsters/monstrosity allow for the (dis)placement of anxieties that contemporary social mores do not otherwise sanction in the public space, editors Artenie and Szanter seek original essays for an edited collection on manifestations of monsters and monstrosity in all facets of popular culture and entertainment with an emphasis on film and television. Within the last years, there has been an explosion of movies and television shows that incorporate monstrous characters such as the vampire, zombie, werewolf, revenant, witches, and ghosts. While monsters continue to remain strong in the human conscious, the recent proliferation of monstrous characters includes new and innovative interpretations that not only attract mainstream audiences but transform traditional folklore and mythologies. This collection aims to analyze the new forms taken by monsters in film and television for their cultural impact on modern entertainment and popular culture.

Chapters in the proposed collection can focus on one or more of the following categories:

• Modern monsters in television and film, particularly new monster media like iZombie, The Originals, The Vampire Diaries, Penny Dreadful, NBC’s Dracula, Teen Wolf, The Walking Dead, Les Revenants, Sleepy Hollow, Doctor Who, Warm Bodies, The Wolfman (2010), Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Krampus, Victor Frankenstein, and many others
• Modern monster theory as an important element of pop cultural study and relevance in an era of growing monster imagery and narrative
• Address canon or contemporary monster fictions through a particular scholarly lens
• Address monster studies and intersectionality. Of particular interest to the editors are popular depictions of monstrosity and disability, non-binary gender and sexuality, feminism, and non-traditional/deconstructed families within a broad identity politics frame.
• Discussions of fandom theory as it relates to monster films with worldwide success (i.e. The Twilight Saga).

Preference will be given to abstracts received before May 1, 2016 and should be no longer than 300 words. Please also include a brief biographical statement and a CV.

Final manuscripts (no longer than 15,000 words, including Works Cited) should be submitted in MLA style, by July 15, 2016.

Send inquires and abstracts to: ashleyszanter1@weber.edu

By web submission at 01/25/2016 - 03:26

CFP Disabled Gothic Bodies (Spec Issue of Studies in Gothic Fiction) (5/30/2016)

Happily came across the following by accident last week:

Call for Papers: Studies in Gothic Fiction Special Issue – Disabled Gothic Bodies
http://studiesingothicfiction.weebly.com/call-for-papers.html

Guest Editor: Dr. Alan Gregory

The Gothic is a mode that displays a sustained cultural fascination with the disabled body. As David Punter notes, ‘the history of ... dealings with the disabled body runs throughout the history of the Gothic, a history of invasion and resistance, of the enemy within, of bodies torn and tormented or else rendered miraculously, or sometimes catastrophically, whole’ (2000: 40). Despite the Gothic’s prolonged exploration of corporeal deviations from perceived cultural norms, however, Martha Stoddard Holmes suggests that the scholastic intersections between Disability Studies and Gothic Studies have been largely neglected. Proposals are invited for a special issue of Studies in Gothic Fiction concerned with Gothic representations of the physically disabled body. This issue of the journal will make a valuable contribution in addressing the lack of sustained critical explorations of physical disability as a motif in Gothic fiction, film and television. It will also examine how the Gothic’s uncomfortable conflation of disability and monstrosity creates binary oppositions between spectacles and seclusions of physical difference, and the creation and cure of corporeal disability. In order to diversify from Ruth Bienstock Anolik’s edited collection, Demons of the Body and Mind (2010), the scope of the issue will not extend to Gothic representations of psychological and intellectual disabilities. Topics which may be explored by contributors could include, but are not limited to:

• Amputation
• Birth Defects
• Body Horror Coded as Disability
• Celebrations of Physical Difference
• Conjoined Siblings
• Disabilities as Exceptionalities
• (Dis)Empowerments of the Disabled Body
• Entraordinary Bodies
• (Im)Mobility
• Monstrous Bodies
• Phantom Limbs
• Prostheses
• Ritual Disfigurement
• Scientific/Technological Creations/Cures of Disability
• Spectacular Bodies
• The Wounded Storyteller

Proposals of approximately 500 words, complete with a 50 word bionote, should be submitted to Dr. Alan Gregory at a.gregory5@lancaster.ac.uk by Monday 30th May 2016. Contributors can expect to be selected and notified by Friday 17th June 2016. (Full drafts of the selected articles will be due on Friday 4th November 2016).

CFP Journal of Dracula Studies for 2016

Journal of Dracula Studies Call for Papers
http://kutztownenglish.com/journal-of-dracula-studies-call-for-papers/

We invite manuscripts of scholarly articles (4000-6000 words) on any of the following: Bram Stoker, the novel Dracula, the historical Dracula, the vampire in folklore, fiction, film, popular culture, and related topics.

Submissions should be sent electronically (as an e-mail attachment in .doc or .rtf). Please indicate the title of your submission in the subject line of your e-mail. Send electronic submissions to journalofdraculastudies@kutztown.edu.

Please follow the 2009 updated MLA style. Contributors are responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions and ensuring observance of copyright. Manuscripts will be peer-reviewed independently by at least two scholars in the field. Copyright for published articles remains with the author.

Submissions must be received no later than May 1, 2016, in order to be considered for the 2016 issue.

Contact: Dr. Curt Herr or Dr. Anne DeLong